I gotta thank Ubisoft for saving me money by consistently saying dumbass shit so I don't buy their crappy games. The one Elon tweet was still pretty funny though I won't lie.
this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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The way of the future....VCRs went away. DVDRs went away, replaced with DVRs and membership streaming, where you can "buy" a movie on Amazon Prime, but if they lose the rights to the movie, so do you - oh well. Your Tesla will brick, if Elon gets mad at you, and your video games will stop working if "the man" unplugs the server. Oh, and dont get caught pulling out your old dusty VCR to record the Super Bowl to watch later....thats a copyright violation. The oligarchs want to make sure the plebes eventually own nothing. If the masters can take it all away, the peasants will do what they're told, be quiet about it, and smile when in sight of the masters.
This is why I will always have some nostalgia for physical media. I still got CDs I bought in the 90s (which I've copied onto my hard drives a long, long time ago) and while they need a like coaxing to work at times, they are forever mine and no one can take them from me.
I was very hesitant to go on steam specifically for their 'you don't own shit even if you paid and followed the rules' garbage.
Steam is crazy in how it's still usable and not completely enshittified after existing for so many years. I don't know how they do it
It's called staying away from venture capital. It really is as simple as that. Because Valve has a lucrative business model they have no need or desire to raise capital from outside investors, therefore there is nobody to squeeze them for value at the expense of their customers.
If you watch Cory Doctorow's talk where he coined the word "enshittification" he explains how the process works, and it starts with outside investment. Enshittification is just a catchy term for value extraction, from the perspective of the customer.
Damn, now I understand the hype!
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And people will still defend this company
Does anyone defend them? I think what happens is that people get mad at them but then still buy the games anyway because they're absolute fucking idiots. I believe this is what happens.
People are still buying the games. Call it what you want but if you give them money it's your fault they keep doing this.
Same goes for the people who whine about how broken COD is yet still buy it every single year. People often wonder why the game industry is the way it is, but then you realize the average person has a gold fish brain and will keep wasting their money on crap just to be disappointed over and over. Companies absolutely love that kind of customer and would rather rely on them than actually try.
Yea that's exactly what I'm saying. I blame the consumers. It's not like they don't have options.
Yeah, that's true
I think there is an implication that if you buy a game which is online by nature (e.g. an MMO) that the servers can and will shut down eventually. My cupboard is filled with defunct MMOs. And people do not "own" any commercial software per se, they run it under licence.
So I don't see that Ubisoft has any legal obligation here. But as a good will gesture they really should put the server code in escrow, or open source chunks of it so that games can continue to enjoy life after the company itself has no economic incentive to continue running it.
If they don’t sell the game but a long term rental license, then they should not say “we’ve sold 1234557890 copies of ”.
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Some call it piracy when you download games, movies, music, software or books. I call it an online public library. In 2003 I used to get video games from the public library, install them on my PC and play them. You had to have the disk in your CD drive to play the game so when the game was due back at the library you could return or renew it. If game makers don't provide hard copies then downloading is no different than using the library.
Technically they're right, which is why pirating Ubisoft games is ethical.
Edit: Pirating Nintendo games is ethical too, of course.
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Ubisoft deserves to go bankrupt, get dissolved, and have their IP’s sold to people aren’t malicious.
No, make it a entirely employee-owned company, so they can vote the execs out, sanitize the culture, and keep the thousands of worker out of unemployment
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“You will own nothing and like it”
I don't like it, though.
If you have to buy it, you own it. Make it free to play but have in game purchases. Everyone knows free games can shut down any time. I play lot of mobile apps until I get tired of playing it, then delete.
I avoid buying games that requires online connection. It means the game is unplayable without it.
It's sickening what companies can get away with just because it's legal. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
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If you never actually own a Ubisoft game that logically pirating them isn't theft right? Right?
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Tell you what customers absolutely can do: decide to stop doing business with you.
Let's see if the physical disc once said anything about needing an online connection for single play. Oh look, it did not, the subscription required was only for 2-8 players network play.
Let's compare with Destiny 2's back cover, a game that is a MMO and thus "cannot be owned" by the players. Hey, a "Online Play (Required)*" sticker that is not present on The Crew! The fine print has a bit that states that "Activision makes no guarantee of regarding availability of online play or features, and may modify or discontinue online services at its discretion without notice."
FF14 also had a "Online Play (Required)*" sticker on its back cover. It clearly states on the rectangular bit above the T Rating: "Users are granted only a limited, revocable license and do not own any intellectual property in the game or game data"
You deceived consumers, Ubisoft. "Online Play Required" is not there, so the game should remain playable offline.
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Looks like I'll be pirating Black Flag for my next replay.
The use of the words 'buy', "own" or 'purchase' in connection with DRM rental should be an international felony, and grounds for immediate break-up of businesses that use them.
Ubisoft cannot complain if I pirate their games, because they never actually sold them. And I'm not deceiving them with my intention of never, ever, give them a dime.
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When does Ubisoft realize that "you never owned it" and "you can't complain" are arguments for not buying their next game?
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If buying isn’t owning then sharing isn’t stealing…
By principle I avoid “online required” games.
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